Hey Jude, don't pull Paul McCartney's plug

LONDON 2012 chiefs have promised not to pull the plug on Paul McCartney when he closes the Olympic Games ceremony this coming Friday.

Macca, rudely interrupted as he duetted with Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park’s Hard Rock Calling, will be given leave to carry on regardless.

(Which is a good thing if you love The Beatles, or a bad thing if you reckon the 70-year-old pop knight’s voice is shot.)

The former Beatle will lead 80,000 spectators at the Olympic Stadium in a mass singalong of Hey Jude.

It promises to be the emotional highpoint of the £27 million spectacular dreamed up by Trainspotting and Shallow Grave movie director Danny Boyle.

There had been worries that McCartney might miss out on his moment of Olympic glory after parts of the ceremony were cut because of fears that it might over-run.

Were you heartbroken to hear that the BMX stunt team got the boot? Me neither.

The audience will enjoy a scene that represents a traditional and idyllic view of the British countryside. There will be picnics, staged by 10,000 volunteers, a hill that looks like Glastonbury Tor – complete with clouds – and maypoles topped with thistles, leeks, roses and flax.

The stars of the show will include 70 sheep, 12 horses, 10 chickens, 10 ducks, nine geese, three sheepdogs and two goats. And expect Old Macdonald to make an appearance, too.

The scene will then shift to an urban environment with the Thames at its centre.

Boyle has called the ceremony Isles of Wonder, taken from a speech by Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and says it will be a picture of a nation recovering from its industrial legacy.

Sounds like Mull of Kintyre to me.